


Spring Break

by AmberSkye



Series: Christine and Erik make a long distance relationship work and other adventures [4]
Category: Le Fantôme de l'Opéra | Phantom of the Opera & Related Fandoms
Genre: F/M, christine is here to help, nadir is the best bro as always, tw for panic attack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-30
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-04-15 03:46:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14151243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmberSkye/pseuds/AmberSkye
Summary: It's Christine's Spring Break and she's continuing the habit of showing up on Erik's doorstep uninvited.She's declaring it a tradition, at this point.Will shenanigans ensure? Of course! Will there be hurt/comfort? You do know what fandom this is, right?





	1. Panic Attack

**Author's Note:**

> Continuing the tradition of completely ignoring time zones and how airports/planes work.

Heck. Yes. Finally, Christine was free for one whole week and two days. Normally breaks were a nice reprieve, but always had her concerned about money. Scholarships were great, if she had to work retail like her first three years of college she might’ve just killed someone, but now that she didn’t, she budgeted for meals with a calculator and a prayer. 

She wanted to go see Erik. Now was the best possible opportunity, a whole week in his house! And plane tickets weren’t much, but they weren’t free, and she needed free at the moment. Erik hadn’t brought up her visiting over their evening calls, either, which usually would have stung a little (even though she knew by this point he meant no harm in it) but since he was being especially quiet, it only concerned her. He dealt with things by himself, she knew, but finally she broke. “Erik, I don’t want to pry, but I just wish I could be there to sit with you in person. You’ve been off this whole week.” 

He’d been flipping mindlessly through a book, but he looked up quickly at this. “I wondered. I was unsure if you planned on visiting. . .”  
“I’d like to, but I need to save money.” She sighed. “But soon I’ll get a real job and we can fly wherever we want.”  
“Christine, I would gladly pay.”  
She pulled her knees up to her chin. “I know that, I just wish you didn’t have to. But I miss you.”  
She couldn’t see the nuances of his expression over video. It was hard even in person with the mask, but at least she could interpret tone and facial shifts. But the quality wasn’t good enough for that. “I miss you too, Christine. But it is best you are not here.”  
Her eyes widened. “Why?”  
“I am not entirely myself this week. And myself even on a good week is not desirable company.”  
“That’s not true! Okay, forget guilt over money. Fly me over there on the soonest flight,”  
Erik gave a weak laugh at that, which had to have been the first of the week. “I will be fine alone Christine. I’m used to it.” His smile hardly counted as such.

I’m used to it. Used to being alone. Or worse, with most of the company he kept. What about Nadir? She’d call him tonight. He would be able to help her. 

She’d been quiet a while, so he continued. “In fact, I think I will sleep. Until tomorrow, Christine.”  
“I lo--” He’d already ended the call. She took a moment to steady herself and called Nadir.

“Hello?” He picked up on the first ring.  
“Have you talked to Erik recently?” She kept her voice as even as possible.  
There was a sigh on the other end of the line. “No.”  
She only didn’t lecture him because he sounded as unhappy about it as she felt. “Is he sick?”  
“No. . .” he said, drawing out the word. “And naturally he would never see a doctor, but from what I can tell it's anxiety or depression. He locks himself up and doesn’t talk to anyone, and usually doesn’t eat. He comes out of it, eventually.”  
“He answered my calls. But he hardly said anything, even when I tried bringing up things that would usually set him off for a half hour.”  
“Then honestly, Christine, that is an improvement.”  
“I still don’t like it. Nadir. . .I don’t like asking this. I’ve got enough savings to get me there, but. . .”  
“I’ll pay for the flight home. Erik gives me enough as it is. But I warn you, he might not let you in. You are always welcome in my home, if that is the case.”  
“Thanks Nadir.” 

She was already on the airline comparison site. “I can be there by tomorrow morning. I’m bringing stuff to stay the week so he knows I mean business.”  
“I’ll see you then.” 

Christine caught some sleep on the plane, so she arrived on Erik’s front porch awake and looking pretty presentable. She called him on video chat, since knocking wasn’t even worth it. Erik answered on voice only.  
“Christine,” he greeted. He sounded tired, but it was two in the afternoon.  
“Hey there love,” she replied softly. “I’m on your doorstep.”  
“Pardon?” She rang the doorbell. “Christine, please--”  
“I know you aren’t feeling well. And you probably haven’t eaten in the last twenty-four hours. So I’m here to help fix that.”  
There was a pause so long she considered ringing the doorbell again. “I’ll be down in a few minutes.”  
“You don’t have to get dressed or anything. Just open the door so no one can see from the street and I’ll slip inside. The coast is clear anyway.”  
“Christine--”  
“Please.” 

He hung up on her, but she heard him come down immediately and opened the door a small bit. She slipped in, dropped her bags, and closed it gently. Erik was looking away, mask not on. His hair was wet, so he had at least managed a shower. He kept his mask on for calls, even after she’d told him he didn’t have to, so it was a testament to his not feeling good if he hadn’t even put it on. But she was glad he hadn’t, so she didn’t have to coerce him out of it.

She walked in front of him and took his hands in hers. He wasn’t wearing his usual outfit, but soft loungewear with signs it had been owned many years. “You shouldn’t see me like this. I should be better for you,”  
“Woah, no, no, no,” she chanted. “None of that. I love you for you, not you at just your best, or you only when you put an act on. That means I’m here to help. When did you last eat?”  
Still looking down, he peeked up at her. She sighed and tucked a strand of hair behind his ear, revealing his face. She ran a thumb over his cheek to get him to look at her. She smiled softly and pulled him into an embrace. 

“I’ll just assume it’s been too long and make you some soup. It’s homemade. Really good, I promise, it was Mamman’s recipe.” She pulled back and kissed his cheek. “Sit.”  
He didn’t really reply, just watched her work, so tucked in on himself and dejected she brought a blanket and wrapped it around his shoulders, placing another kiss on his head while the soup simmered. She ladled just a little serving into a bowl and dropped in an ice cube to melt so it cooled down faster. 

The little click it made on the table seemed to bring Erik back to reality. He took in the scene quickly and took a long breath. “Thank you, Christine.”  
She pulled her chair up close and rested her leg against his while he ate, taking a bite usually only when she directed a pointed look at him. She wanted to ask what was wrong so badly, but waited it out until she had dragged him over to the couch in the music room. “What are you feeling right now?”  
“Nothing good.”  
“How do I help?” He opened his mouth and his eyes flashed angrily for a second. “I know there’s nothing that will just fix it right away. I just mean would music help, or shoulder rubs, tea? Talking or not talking?”  
His brow furrowed. “I don’t know,” he said, and it sounded desperate. It tore at her heart but she just nodded.  
“Okay. Let’s try this for now,” she suggested, and brought his head to rest on her chest. She tucked the blanket around them both and could run her hand over Erik’s back. She put some classical music on her phone to play.

It was somewhere between five to ten minutes later that Erik took a deep breath. “You don’t have to do this. There are better things for you to do with your spring break than deal with me. You should be enjoying yourself with better company.”  
“Oh my goodness, Erik. I don’t know where to start. Alright, sit up.” She tugged him reluctantly upright to face her and brought her forehead to rest against his. She waited until his eyes slipped closed and he seemed more relaxed to speak again. “You listen to me, okay? I’ll tell you this as many times as it takes but you’d better be listening every time. I love you. With all my heart. So much that people make fun of me in class because I somehow always find a way to bring up your name, like ‘Oh, my boyfriend Erik told me. . .’ teachers have started imitating it.” 

“You never told me that,” he said. He sounded wistful, maybe?  
“It seemed embarrassing, but now I realize I should embrace that because it just goes to show how smart you are. But that’s not my point. My point is that you’re what I like to think about and have on my mind, even when I’m daydreaming. I think about how you’d react to something someone said about music, or what you would comment on about my voice when I sing. So what I’m getting at is that you are the best company I could have this break, and this is the best thing I could be doing. Because I love you, and being with you. And of course I want you to be happy more than anything in this world, but I’ll sit right here forever if that’s what you needed. With snack and tea breaks,” she added with a smile.

She startled another laugh from him. He rubbed his eyes, pulled back in surprise like he just remembered his face was bear. “I should--”  
“If you say something about putting on your mask I’m going to cover it in glitter glue.”  
He opened his mouth and closed it. When he replied, he sounded much more himself, “You seem like you’ve thought about this before.”  
“Oh, all the time. Pink for the cheeks, and some red around the lips, and--”  
He laughed, and she couldn’t help but hug him full around the middle. “Christine, I’m sorry.”  
“Stop that. You don’t need to apologize for not being perfect. Everyone has bad days. Can you talk about it? Walk me through it.”  
Erik grimaced. “I don’t relish the idea of you thinking about it. You’re too caring, Christine.”  
“I care about those close to me. And you’re the closest. I’d much rather know so I can understand, or try to.” 

“Alright,” he said with a sigh. “But this is something that requires tea.”  
Christine giggled. “You sure you’re not British?”  
“British? Absolutely not. If anything at all I would be French, they as a culture seem to hold nearly as much fascination with death and misery as I do, at least in their artworks.”  
She tilted her head, weighing this. “But the ex-pats from America like Hemingway shouldn’t count, and then. . .”  
“Interesting. Without them it is rather less severe.”

There was comfortable quiet as they made tea together, then, though Christine noted he never really let go of holding one of her hands or touching a shoulder or an elbow.  
Stationed back on the couch, Erik took a long sip of tea. “I am usually just fine. But sometimes, whether I see or hear something or just think about it too often, I’ll get nightmares.” Erik shoved a hand through his hair and shook his head. “That sounds so childish.”  
“No, it doesn’t at all. God, when I first moved into the apartment, even though I knew Meg so well, I hardly slept for weeks because of them. And of course you can’t measure or compare grief, but I certainly had things better than you. There’s nothing childish about bad dreams at all,” she assured him with a small shiver of her own. She nodded for him to continue.

“Half the problem seems to be that I expect it to happen, which just drives it forward, but I have a panic attack. And of course I don’t take any good advice and just make things as hard as possible on myself. Which is just as pathetic as it sounds. Then I dwell on that, and. . .”  
“It’s a vicious cycle.”  
“It’s exhausting, but--” he took a shaky breath and his next words were so strained she had to hold her breath to catch them. “I can’t make it stop. I just want it to stop.” 

And he was crying, now, full-bodied, unrestrained sobs wracking his body. She pulled him back to her chest, letting him get it all out, tracing random patterns onto his back. She squeezed her own eyes shut so as not to cry. After his tears faded to calm breathing, she pulled back a little. “Feel any better?” she asked with a smile.  
“I-- yes. I think I do.” 

He sounded so surprised by this she had to giggle. “Sometimes we all need a good cry. In all honesty, I’m really glad you let me be with you for it.”  
“Why?”  
“Because you deserve to have people supporting you through the tough times.” He frowned at her and she huffed. “You do. And I swear you’ll know that’s true, someday. Because I’m going to say over and over again how much you mean to me, and how much I want to be by your side.” 

He relaxed into her shoulder. “When you say it, I feel like I will be able to believe you. Some day.”  
She kissed his head. “C’mon, go wash your face and I’ll warm your tea up.” 

They meet back up and Erik’s hovering by the kitchen table, looking unsure where to go from here. “How are you feeling?” Christine asked.  
“I’m not. . .feeling great. But I can’t actually point to anything negative. The best way to describe it would be -- hollow. I’d rather not dwell on it.” 

The tone of careful consideration made her think it was less like grief-hollow and more like feeling-better-after-throwing-up-hollow. Not pleasant, but better than the alternative. “Okay.” She thought for a moment about what to suggest that required a lot of focus, but not much thinking, exactly. She looked up quickly when she thought of the perfect solution. “Erik, have you heard of Mario Kart?”

He had not.  
She explained while pulling out her and Meg’s ‘borrowed’ 3ds. “I’ll go easy on you, the first round.”  
He scoffed. “It sounds remarkably simple. There’s no need.”  
So she pushed him repeatedly off the edge of rainbow road instead. 

By evening, she’d made him laugh, and the only thing he was grieving over was how he had lost every single round. 

“How long are you staying here for, by the way?”  
“Oh, the rest of the week.”  
Erik choked on his dinner (they cheated and made instant ramen) and then a smile grew over his face. She grinned back.


	2. Walks in the Evening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Christine wants to go on a romantic walk in the park -- that they're trespassing on, but details, details.  
> Erik is reluctant.
> 
> Spoiler: They go on a walk in the park.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay guys: This chapter has been a long time coming! Ive been busy! I graduated college on May 19th (yay!!) and I went on vacation out of the country -- also on May 19th. It was hectic. I'm getting married August 4th, I have 5 job apps in because although i love kids being a sub teacher is sometimes a menace, and we're scouring the market for a house that's less than selling all our organs on the black market.
> 
> But this is a story about relationships, and how they work. My Christine has a little more insight than most people (certainly more than me) and my Erik is willing to compromise for her. IRL, my fiance is Quirky. One of those quirks is him hating wearing shoes inside the house. Even if he is just running in to get something, he'll take his shoes off and retie them. I thought he was nuts, and one day he voiced his annoyance at me doing it, and my reply was basically ??!?!?!?!  
> which he understands because he speaks my language  
> anyway, it turns out he really gets bothered by it because when he did wrestling in high school, wearing dirty shoes in the sports room was how he and a bunch of people got ringworm, and he's a bit of a germaphobe so this was awful for him.  
> TL;DR -- there's probably a reason for someone's weird concerns that annoy you, so maybe ask first before getting huffy.
> 
> Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
> 
> More importantly, THANK YOU ALL for leaving such wonderful comments. I read them, and usually reread them a million times because it makes me so happy that you guys are happy and understand what I'm going for with this series~

Christine was stumped. She was used to people accepting whatever favor she asked of them. With Raoul, she just gave him free food. Meg hated shopping so she’d kill a man for her if she bought her clothes. Everyone had a weakness. 

Which made it sound like she was exploiting people, which she was most definitely not. But that was beside the point. She didn’t want to find Erik’s weak spot, she just really wanted to go on a walk with him at night. It was dark, and there was a park nearby that he had admitted he broke into some nights and no one else was ever around. But he didn’t want to go with her, no matter how perfect the temperature was or how many times she brought it up.

“Why not?” She finally asked.  
“Why not what, Christine?” he replied, somewhat distracted as he set the book aside and looked down to where she was using his lap as a pillow.   
“Why won’t you go to the park with me?”  
“Trespassing is illegal, you know.” She scoffed lightly. He frowned and looked back at his book, pretending interest in the cover.  
“Please, Erik. I leave tomorrow, and I’d like to at least know why so it doesn’t bug me forever.” She said it with humor in her tone, but they both knew she meant it at least a small bit.  
“You aren’t going to like the answer.”   
“I consider myself warned,”

She sat up so she could face him better and he met her gaze. Maskless, looking a bit like he was lost at sea. She waited patiently for him to choose the wording carefully. “When we are together, it’s a. . .controlled environment. Even when we first met and fought over the mask, I knew I was secure in my own home. At your apartment, you knew Meg would be fine with me and I trusted you about that. What I’ve told you about how my face affects my life is. . .so little, compared to the whole reality. At home, it doesn’t matter and I am forever grateful to you for that, Christine, but outside is different.” 

She nodded in realization. He wasn’t just being grumpy. It was like when she was sick and she thought he was overreacting. She should know by now Erik always had his reasons, and they were usually never any good. “There are a lot of other variables out and about.” She said with a nod.  
“Police, at the very least, although other people might be more concerning.”   
Christine worried at her bottom lip. “I understand, Erik. You’ve had experiences that are so different from my own that our whole worldview is even different,” she said quietly. “I wish I could show you how I saw things. I think we’d be perfectly fine and no one would show up, but I’m not going to make you uncomfortable for it.”

Erik let out a sigh of relief. “Christine, you are otherworldly, you know.”   
Well, she had to kiss him then, so the conversation was left there.

A few hours later, Erik appeared from the hall looking like he was about to go into battle, wearing long sleeves like usual but with his gloves as an addition, and met her eyes. “It’s getting dark.” This was a very obvious fact, as she was next to an open window letting the breeze in. He didn’t usually go for stating the obvious, so she only nodded and waited. “And you leave tomorrow.”   
She thought she might know what he was going to say, so she sat up straighter. “Erik, I really don’t mind staying in with you.”   
“Forever?” It came out of him in a burst, like he’d been itching to say something. “If you are going to be with me, I am not going to keep you inside like. . .some kind of tomb.”   
“Erik,” she gasped and stood up. “It’s not like I wouldn’t have a life, a job. . .”   
“And none of those things would be with me. So maybe I’d be the one in a tomb. I’ve been living like it until now and never even thought about it that way,” he said self-depreciatingly. “I can’t hide forever. You know, the other name for me when I was the Devil’s Child was the Living Corpse. If that’s me, I’ll go mad one day, now that I realize it. You made me realize it, but more than that, I actually want to do something about it, at least tonight. So let’s go.” 

She hopped to her feet. He wouldn’t be dissuaded like this, and she was itching to be outside. And maybe he was right. She just wanted him to be safe, loved. She would do everything she could to keep him that way, but maybe being comfortable wasn’t always the right answer. He pushed her to try out for singing roles, maybe she would get him to see the world from her point of view, one day.

They left through the back door. He had a small gate that would lead out and around to some back streets. New York was so compact, compared to California. Everywhere she turned was some new business, cramming so much life into one place. “It's a wonder anyone gets anything done.”  
“Pardon?”  
“Oh,” she hadn’t realized she was speaking aloud. Erik looked somewhat anxious, his grip on her hand tight as they walked along, but she was ignoring it respectfully. “They call this the fastest moving city, right? But everything is so packed in and you can’t get anywhere, I wonder at how slow things actually go.”   
“I try not to drive, I hadn’t noticed.”   
“In California, you don’t have much of a choice. You get 60 miles in less than an hour because that’s where the nearest big city is, usually. At least, unless you’re in L.A or the Bay Area, but for the most part. Everyone here is practically in one big city they divided up randomly.”

She’d given Erik something logical to think about, which turned out to be a good decision because they spent the rest of the time debating land distribution. Which should have been boring, but nothing with Erik was ever boring. 

And then she spotted a fire escape. “Up there,” she pointed.  
“What about it?” He asked nervously.  
“That’s where we’re going. The park can wait, the night is young.”   
She was already halfway up the first flight of stairs, so he took a deep breath and followed her. 

It was a business building, so no one was around at this time. The part of the rooftop that was accessible was tiny, but she leaned up against the railing and beamed as Erik appeared next to her. “Look at how much you can see.”   
“Not very much,” he deadpanned, but didn’t look away from the cityscape.  
“How about the stars, then? There are a lot up here.”   
He looked up and relaxed somewhat. “I can see more than Orion and the Dippers, at least.”  
“Those three are literally all I know how to find.”  
He raised a brow. “Really? Well --” 

And then they talked about the stars. She kissed him after, leaning back against the railing as he held her lightly, not afraid of falling at all. The metal was cold, and he was never very warm, but his lips on hers were, and the warm air made her shiver lightly, pulling him closer to her. She stuck her hands under his shirt to warm them up and he growled in her ear but she kissed him again to distract him. 

They stood, foreheads resting against each other, and he smiled down at her. “If this is how you see night walks, you aren’t allowed to be outside past sundown with anyone except me,” he said teasingly.   
“Hmm, well alright,” she agreed. “But only because I didn’t plan on it anyway. I wouldn’t want anyone else.”  
He kissed her, that time.   
“We haven’t made it to the park yet, you know.”   
“I blame you.”   
“How do you figure?”  
“Well, I’m the one pinned here, aren’t I?” He scoffed, not believing that any more than she did. She giggled and pushed off the rail, slipping her fingers into his. “Lead on, then.”

Past a few more one way streets they came upon the park. It was fenced in by a tall chain link fence and the gate was securely locked. He walked up to it and scowled. “They changed the lock since the last time I was here.”   
She looked down at her shoes, pleased she was wearing something sensible. His were in good condition, but they would work too. “That’s fine.”   
“We’ll head back to the roof.”  
“Not so fast, buddy. You can climb a fence, can’t you?”  
He stared at her. “You mean that.” 

She took her first step in the links, carefully picking her way up. “Now if I can only remember how you got over the top of these things.”   
He hovered anxiously below her. “You’re alright?”   
“Yup, great, just have to. . .” she swung over and clattered against the other side of the fence. She crowed a victory, then clapped a hand over her mouth with a giggle.  
“The happiest amateur trespasser I’ve ever seen,” Erik said dryly.  
“Amateur? Let’s see you do it, then!”

So of course he proved her wrong by being stupid and tall and getting a foothold, finding a place to rest his arm, and vaulting himself over like some criminal gymnast. “How?” Christine asked with a pout.  
“Being athletic has always been something more of survival than pride.”  
The look she sent him was filled with heat. “Well, I think you should be proud. That was hot.”   
He gave her a confused look. “I don’t see how.”   
“That’s fine, I’ll just have to show you.” 

Their kiss was slightly breathless, since they had both just jumped a fence, but she still counted it a success. Every kiss she shared with Erik was a success. Holding hands, they continued on into the park. Closed at night, there was no lighting and it was shaded and dark. “Ooh, this is really creepy.”  
“Should we head back?” Erik asked casually. 

She smiled her thanks warmly up at him. “No, actually. If I were alone I’d say yeah, but I’m safe with you.”   
“Yes, you are,” he promised seriously. A beat passed and he smiled slightly. “Ironic, it is the safety I feel with you that got us here, and the safety you feel with me that keeps us.”  
She wrapped her arms around his waist in a half-hug and looked up at him. “I’m pretty sure that’s just how love works.”   
His breath caught and his smile widened. “Consider yourself an expert, do you?”   
She giggled at the teasing. “Why of course I am. Therefore you should always listen to me, since I’m the expert here.”  
“Ah, well, if you insist,” he agreed easily. She kissed his cheek and slipped from his arms, gesturing vaguely at the swingset.   
“I haven’t been on swings in years. Push me?”  
He furrowed his brow. “Sorry?”

The emotion at his simple question slammed into her heart and she took a short intake of breath at the realization at exactly what his lack of childhood meant. He didn’t know what pushing someone on the swings meant. He wouldn’t know how to play hopscotch, or turn ropes in the intricate games, or fathom why people kept jumping off the tops of monkey bars to see how far they could go. Little things she hardly thought about anymore. She almost snorted at the idea of Erik holding a Tamagotchi. Christine and Meg had both had three each, they were fiends for the year those were in.

“Christine, are you alright?”  
“Oh. Yeah, Erik, I’m fine. Just thought of something. Anyway, with the swings I’m going to swing using leverage, but when I swing back you push me forward again to get more momentum.”  
If he noticed something was off -- and he almost certainly did -- he let it slide. She hopped on the swing (startlingly close to the ground, now that she was older) and kicked off. Erik dutifully pushed her, and looped around to sit on the other seat. She laughed as she swung by, watching him try to look regal sitting with his knees up to his chest.  
“And just what are you laughing at?”  
She slowed to a stop, grinning. “You, of course.”  
He smiled wryly. “An expert of love should know better than to make fun of their love.”  
“Nonsense, an expert on love knows that making fun of their love is incredibly important.”  
He leaned into her. “Well, I did say I would listen to you.”   
She hummed in agreement, then broke the moment with a yawn. 

Erik checked his phone for the time and his eyebrows rose. “I think it’s bedtime.”   
“Aw, just five more minutes?”  
He got this reference and laughed. “No, we’re going home now,” he replied, and she took his arm and began their walk. She made it back over the fence more easily this time, and him just as smoothly.

When they were almost back, a woman rounded the corner and both parties missed a step, startled at the sudden appearance of people. Her eyes were drawn first to Christine, then lingered warily on Erik’s mask for a moment, but she mostly looked confused by the pair. “Good evening,” Christine chirped as she walked by.   
“Good evening,” the woman replied with an instinctual smile. Erik nodded to her.

When Christine and Erik rounded the corner, she said, “See? They’re as scared of us as we are of them.”   
Erik gave a startled laugh at this. “That. . . felt different, somehow.”   
Christine thought a moment, then stopped. “You ever consider the fact that all a woman walking home alone sees is a strange man she doesn’t know, probably scowling at them?” She asked bluntly.   
Erik’s mouth opened immediately to protest, but he stopped himself. “I am no threat to them.”   
“If she’s alone at night, every man a woman sees is a threat, Erik. Its a safety mechanism.”  
“Men are frightened too.”   
“And then that’s probably a different case. I know you’re not a threat. I’m just pointing out a different perspective.”

Erik nodded stiffly. As he pulled out his keys to let them back inside, he gave a short sigh. “I’m sure you’re right about that. I’ll think on it.”  
She kissed him quickly. “As long as you don’t overthink it,” she said knowingly.

Well, she thought while she brushed her teeth, it may not be a good worldview, but at least he sees how I see things, sometimes. She considered her night walk a success.


End file.
